Appreciative
by laurzz
Summary: DannyLindsay. post-ep for 7x13. "We're just going to trade shifts... you've got yourself a snow day."


**A/N: Hi guys, it's been a while since I got the chance to post any post-eps... silly random breaks NY! :( But alas, here we are... another post-ep. I did have something else planned, but I find that I do literally post-episode one-shots _all_ the time, and decided it'd be a nice chance to do something a little different... so here we have it. Hope you guys like it 3 (and as you might be able to tell, I was feeling the absence of Lindsay :p) **

**Special thanks to all of you who reviewed the last one-shot. Your comments was as always, so encouraging, thoughtful and lovely! I love you all - thanks so much for always coming back and reviewing. You guys are awesome! Meggie, Sweet LIL loz, Aveo amacus, MesserFamilyFan100, webdlfan, brendanakai , jennifer32485, FoxPhile, juliab, rhymenocerous, afrozenheart412, saderia, 18lzytwner and piper maru duchovny. You're all superstars! Thank you! :) **

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Lindsay Messer felt her stomach sink as her cell phone vibrated against the wood of her bedside table. Judging by the lack of light in their room, daylight was a far cry away; meaning she was about to brave the elements as she trudged her way to the latest crime scene. She opened one eye and clumsily reached towards the offending item, and sighed with relief as she realised that it had simply been a part of her imagination – a dream perhaps? Tucking her arm back under the covers, she shuffled her body towards the middle of the bed, brushing her skin with Danny's. But just as her eyes fluttered shut, she heard it again. The vibrating; except this time – it wasn't_ her_ phone. She released a defeated sigh, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to get away from work.

She pushed herself up out of bed and instantly threw the comforter back to the position it had been in as an attempt to keep Danny sleeping for as long as possible.

She quickly made her way around the bed and scooped his phone up and pressed talk. "Hey Jo, one second."

Quickly and quietly, Lindsay made her way out into the hallway and flicked on the table lamp that illuminated the small area, leading to the living room, "Hey, sorry... what's up Jo?"

"I'm sorry to wake you up sleepyhead; we've caught a scene."

"Well, I didn't think it'd be a social call," Lindsay laughed, despite the early hour. "Who do you need?"

"Well, Mac's told me Danny because you were on the late shift last night, correct?"

"Well, I ended up catching a late shift," Lindsay shrugged. "But Lucy wasn't feeling too good yesterday so Danny's more exhausted than I am... Do you think Mac can deal with the other Messer?"

"I'm sure we can make provisions for that. Mac said that he didn't need you until you could get her dropped her off at pre-school, but I'm sure it's no big deal so long as we've got one of you. And if that's any conciliation for Danny, he's got a little time off."

"I'll go check on her, but I doubt she'll be going today."

"Why, what's the matter?" Jo asked a concerned parent to another concerned parent. "Is she okay?"

"Well, it's not anything specific, she was a little clammy last night, really lethargic and she just wouldn't let him put her down... I think it drained him; he hates to see her like that. So I'll see how she is today... or Danny will more to the point, and go from there."

"Poor thing," Jo sighed in sympathy.

"Who – Danny or Lucy?"

Sharing a giggle before Flack's annoyance rang down the line at what had turned into a social call; Jo made a u-turn on the conversation. "So, suppose you need to know where you're headed."

"Well, I could guess... that's always fun."

"Smarty pants," Jo chided before inquiring whether Lindsay had a pen handy.

Lindsay listened as she scribbled down the location. "Got it..."

"Wait, hang on a second Lindsay..." From Jo's voice Lindsay could tell she'd removed the phone from her ear to speak to someone else, "What was that?"

Securing the phone by her ear with her shoulder, Lindsay busied herself, tidying the remains of Danny's afternoon with a clingy Lucy the day before.

"Okay," Jo's voice sounded on the other end of the line, a little exasperated. "Mac's not happy with you coming in because you were on the late shift... but he says he understands the situation Danny was in last night. He wants you to come in for now, then he wants Danny to come in around the time you would have and rather than you both staying on, you can go home for Lucy."

"Jo, that's not necessary," She said, but really, she wanted to just accept the compromise.

"He's insisting," Jo said, filling Lindsay with relief.

"Alright," Lindsay nodded, despite Jo's inability to see her. "I'll see you soon."

Disconnecting the call, Lindsay let out a yawn as she stretched. Debating her plan of action, she made her way into the kitchen and began preparing a pot of coffee for herself.

She took the time while the coffee pot filled to make a mental list of everything she needed to do. She needed to tell Danny to keep Lucy off pre-school for the day. Then she made a mental note of the few things she needed to pick up before the big grocery store trip she and Danny would have to do at the weekend; if they got the time off that was. She tried to overlook the mess in the kitchen, figuring that ignoring it and hoping it would go away was the most productive way of making a dent in the cleaning. Turning, she looked up to a sleepy figure stood in the doorway, battling to keep his eyes open. "Linds, what you doin'? It's like three-thirty."

"I got called to a scene; you go back to bed honey,"

"What?" he asked, his sleep deprived self struggled to understand her.

"I'm going to the scene," she told him, moving across the kitchen and wrapping her arms around his waist. "There's no way you'd be able to function right now. Go back to bed and we'll trade off later today."

"Babe, you were in the late shift last night."

"I was in the late shift?" Lindsay fought the giggle. "Danny, you're not stringing together sentences that make sense; listen to me... go to bed okay, catch up on sleep as best you can and then you'll be good to go when you come into work later on."

"Linds," he rubbed his eyes. "Babe, I can't let you go to work."

"Baby, you don't have a choice okay? I'm only going in for like a half a shift anyway and I'll make it up tomorrow or something. We're just going to trade shifts... you've got yourself a snow day."

"Don't say that," he grumbled. "Look at what happened last time."

"See, this is how I know you're sleepy, usually you'd get all nostalgic with me after mentioning the snow day."

"Is that before or after I get the twinge in my wrist?" He snipped.

"See, you're cranky... baby go to bed."

"But Linds-" He trailed off as she placed her hands on his shoulders, turned him around and guided him back to the bedroom. She flicked the lamp on and nudged him into the bed.

"This is pathetic," he complained, his eyes already drooping. "Babe, c'mon. Lemme go,"

"Danny, no."

"But babe-" he whined, his eyes mere slits, his determination to keep his eyes open slowly fading.

She knelt down by the side of the bed and ran her fingers gently through his hair, scraping his scalp effectively lulling him to sleep. In mere seconds his eyes were shut, and after about a minute, his chest was rising and falling in a slow but constant rhythm. She pressed a kiss to his temple and let herself linger for a few seconds, inhaling his scent.

He was an absolute sweetheart for being adamant that he took the shift that was rightfully his, but she just couldn't let him. She knew that his exhaustion was a backlash of a culmination of events. He'd taken a shift for her about four days ago when Lucy had fallen off the bed after being told to get down before she fell down. She'd been fine, except for some tears – but after the shock of watching her daughter fall tumbling to the floor, Lindsay had been in no fit state to go to work a twelve hour shift after Lucy had finally stopped sobbing... so Danny had quietly got changed and just as Lindsay was about to pry herself away from her daughter, Danny had dropped a kiss to the crown of her head and told her he had it under control.

They'd luckily wrapped that case up relatively quick... but not 10 hours later he'd caught a high-profile home invasion, resulting in a double homicide; which had exhausted him further.

Then as he had collapsed at home last night, he couldn't even relax with him having a clingy toddler demanding his attention; thus resulting in his inability to keep his eyes open for longer than fifty seconds... So when taking all of that into consideration, Lindsay felt that this was the very least she could do for her husband.

She got dressed in record timing; giving her the chance to find her directions and fold them before putting them in the pocket of her slacks.

She then cast her eyes down to the pad of paper. She pursed her lips before deciding that perhaps a quick note would be a good idea.

_Morning baby, _she wrote.

_I wasn't sure whether you'd remember this morning, so I figured I'd write it down just in case. There's a scene... some truck went steaming into the Hudson apparently, so they needed one of us there. You were just __so__ tired though, I couldn't let you go... didn't want you falling into the damn Hudson yourself :p _

_So, what the plan is, is you sleep – I'll go in and pick up some of the slack, then we're gonna trade off later, k? We'll keep Lu off pre-school today and I'll call at eight to let them know. _

_Call me when you're up. You're a little sweetheart, and I love you. _

_Enjoy your snow day. _

_Montana x_

She smiled as she signed the letter; confident with the fact that when Danny saw how she signed it, he'd have the biggest grin on his face. Montana wasn't a name that they tossed back and forth much anymore, but it was still there and every now and then, they'd remind themselves of their early days... and then revel in the fact that they'd grown together.

Balancing it against the mini chalkboard that sat in their kitchen, Lindsay knew Danny would think to check that, just on the off chance she'd left him a quick note.

Letting out a sigh, Lindsay prepared herself for the day. She'd most likely see some horrible things at work. She'd see people suffer. She'd see people lose their loved ones. She'd see heartache. She'd see brutality and injustice... But all that she saw made her that much more appreciative of what she had waiting for her at home, and it taught her not to take what she had for granted.

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**There we have it - hope you liked it guys! Thanks for reading :) **


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